Alon: Packer out, Wynn in; Expert: Millennials suck

We guess Steve Wynn couldn’t stand looking at a vacant lot across from Wynncore any longer. The former Alon site will now be Wynn’s Next-But-One Great Thing. Back when it was still the Plaza site, Wynn publicly mulled building a convention center on the land, then owned by Elad Partners. However, that idea has been dibbed by Wynn Paradise Park (future home of the giant ape), so Wynn will have to come up with something else, probably a resort — although hopefully one that breaks with his current fetish for semicircular skyscrapers, which he’s done twice in Las Vegas, twice in Macao and is doing in Massachusetts. Some new ideas already, DeRuyter Butler! Kudos to VitalVegas for breaking this story, in which it’s reported that James Packer was rather cheekily asking $400 million for the acreage (despite not having enhanced it one iota), a $120 million markup. So Wynn has bailed Packer out of Vegas. What’s next for El Steve? Some have suggested an NBA arena (which would team the steam of out Jackie Robinson‘s All-Net Arena project), although the thug culture that was on display during 2007’s NBA All-Star game has left lasting and bitter memories among the Vegas populace. Anyway, thanks to Wynn an eyesore on the Strip has a viable chance (finally) to become something beautiful.

* Challenging conventional wisdom, Steven M. Gallaway of Global Market Advisors writes that Millennials will be target customers … in 20 years or so (otherwise known as Sheldon Adelson‘s early middle age). So put those expanded table-game pits and skill-based slots on hold. (Ditto the designer-stubble razors in the bathrooms.) Gallaway argues that douchebags, er, Millennials “went to college with the promise of high-paying jobs when they graduated. Instead, they found themselves in the midst of a recession, with no job and large student loans to pay off.” Throw in an offshoring job market and lingering debt loads and the Millennial isn’t a viable customer. In Gallaway’s observation, the core casino customers are fifty-somethings and have been for at least three generations. He might have added that Millennials are seeing job opportunities are being auctioned away to EB-5 visa holders, who get permanent green cards for investing in shit like SLS Las Vegas.

His prescription for improving casino revenue includes tweaking slot machines so they don’t blow through your bankroll as rapidly: “People may not be able to feel a slot machine’s higher hold on a given day, but they do start noticing when their $100 is lasting two hours instead of three and a half hours.” Also, stop cutting back on customer-service personnel in favor of self-help kiosks. (You can’t reason with a machine.) And quit gouging at the buffet! Do this, Galloway argues, and the next generation of gamblers will manifest themselves.

* Celine Dion is the latest celebrity to avail herself of the recording studio at the Palms. In fact, she’s no stranger to its precincts, having waxed three previous albums there. The studio’s been around for 12 years. Boy, time sure flies when you’re playing host to Maroon 5.